The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Pollinators as Vectors of Mummy Berry Disease in Highbush Blueberry

Background: Many plants must balance the need for pollination services with mediating the risk of pollinator-vectored pathogens. Vaccinium corymbosum, highbush blueberry, is negatively affected by an insect-vectored, fungal plant pathogen, Monilinia vaccinii-corymosi (MVC), the cause of mummy berry disease, in which the asexual spore mimics pollen grains and is transferred from blighted tissue to flowers via pollinators, resulting in inedible, hardened fruits. Highbush blueberry plants require outcrossed pollen for maximum yield and fecundity. Therefore, yield of blueberry plants rely on a balance between adequate pollination service and disease avoidance. Approach: To explore the relationship between pollinator community and infection we used field observations and infection assessments to determine if differences in floral visitors can help to explain variation in infection between cultivars. To better understand the key vectors involved in transmission of MVC we used molecular quantification techniques to assess pathogen load on insect bodies and used a cage trial to determine how much of the pathogen is deposited by two common pollinators in a single visit. Finally, we used inoculation trials followed by fluorescence microscopy to determine if plants must balance pathogen inhibition with fertilization success, as well as assessing whether pathogen germination contributes to disease resistance. Results and Conclusions: When investigating community composition we found that Apis, Bombus and Andrena visitation varied with cultivar and that there was also a positive relationship between the proportion of floral visits by honeybees to individual plants and the percentage of infected fruits. This is the first study to our knowledge comparing fruit infection with visits by different bee species. In our investigation of pathogen load on vectors and single-visit transmission success we found that bees, flies, and wasps were all common visitors and that all the bee species and several species of flies and wasps carried the pathogen. We found no differences between A. mellifera or B. impatiens in pathogen load or transfer efficiency in cages, suggesting that both of these species are equally capable of vectoring MVC during a single visit to a blighted stem and then a flower. Taken together, this research emphasizes the wide variety of floral visitors capable of carrying the MVC pathogen and demonstrates that two common pollinator species have similar potential to vector MVC to blueberry flowers during a single visit. Finally, we found no tradeoff between pollen and fungal spore germination on floral reproductive parts, suggesting that disease resistance traits mediated by stigma traits may not come at a cost of reduced pollination. We also did not find a relationship between spore germination and published disease resistance. This study adds to our understanding of disease resistance in natural and agricultural systems, which is especially important due to mounting concerns over the use and cost of fungicides, including negative effects on non-target organisms. Our findings also increase our understanding of the potential for both wild and managed pollinator species to contribute to the vectoring of a highly damaging blueberry pathogen, and plant pathogens in other systems as well

Response to Disturbances in Soldier Beetles

Citation: Boyer, M. (2017). Response to Disturbances in Soldier Beetles . 1st Annual Undergraduate Research Experience in Entomology Symposium, November 16, 2016. Manhattam, KS.Studying insects’ response to disturbance can tell us how these organisms survive in hostile environments. Studies have shown that soldier beetles can have different mating behaviors depending on the species around them (Bernstein and Bernstein, 1999). They also exercise selective mating in changing ecological conditions (McLain, 2005). When disturbed, beetles are known to drop off plants onto the ground in order to get away from possible predators (Ben-Ari and Inbar, 2013). The goal of this experiment was to determine any trends in response to a probing disturbance by insects and more specifically, soldier beetles. I believed probing soldier beetles with a small disturbance would cause them to move away from the source of the disturbance, with individuals responding more than mating pairs. After collecting and analyzing the data, the conclusion is that the hypothesis is supported by having a greater reaction from individuals than mating pairs. These results suggest that an insect’s tolerance to disturbance increases when mating. This may lead to a decrease in survival behavior in order to fulfill mating interests

Desarrollo y riesgos de desplazamiento

El cambio climático tiene implicaciones tan significativas para las emergencias que a veces se pasa por alto la faceta de desarrollo durante el evento. Sin embargo, el impacto del cambio climático provoca patrones sistémicos de erosión socioeconómica que también afectan las dinámicas del desplazamiento por desastres y que requieren respuestas paralelas

Appalachian Coalfield Delegation Position Paper on Sustainable Energy

Appalachian grassroots groups(with support provided by the DataCenter) release a scathing report on the impact of coal mining to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Delegation created an historic moment with its powerful stories and diverse outreach. Alliances were forged and the civil society discourse on energy, particularly what is sustainable energy and who gets to define it, has been challenged. Their answer---"it comes from the people!" As most government officials continue to ignore the atrocities of mountain top removal, coal sludge impoundments, and underground injections of sludge, it is up to the people of the Appalachian coal fields to let the world know the harsh realities of an economy built on seemingly cheap electricity

Near-Infrared Stellar Populations in the metal-poor, Dwarf irregular Galaxies Sextans A and Leo A

We present JHK$_{s}$ observations of the metal-poor ([Fe/H] $<$ -1.40) Dwarf-irregular galaxies, Leo A and Sextans A obtained with the WIYN High-Resolution Infrared Camera at Kitt Peak. Their near-IR stellar populations are characterized by using a combination of colour-magnitude diagrams and by identifying long-period variable stars. We detected red giant and asymptotic giant branch stars, consistent with membership of the galaxy's intermediate-age populations (2-8 Gyr old). Matching our data to broadband optical and mid-IR photometry we determine luminosities, temperatures and dust-production rates (DPR) for each star. We identify 32 stars in Leo A and 101 stars in Sextans A with a DPR $>10^{-11}$ $M_\odot \,{\rm yr}^{-1}$, confirming that metal-poor stars can form substantial amounts of dust. We also find tentative evidence for oxygen-rich dust formation at low metallicity, contradicting previous models that suggest oxygen-rich dust production is inhibited in metal-poor environments. The total rates of dust injection into the interstellar medium of Leo A and Sextans A are (8.2 $\pm$ 1.8) $\times 10^{-9}$ $M_\odot \,{\rm yr}^{-1}$ and (6.2 $\pm$ 0.2) $\times 10^{-7}$ $M_\odot \,{\rm yr}^{-1}$, respectively. The majority of this dust is produced by a few very dusty evolved stars, and does not vary strongly with metallicity.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 10 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Constructing community: communitarian planning, architecture, and art in the new Iraq

This project presents a multi-media description (photos, drawings, maps, original documents, etc.) and analysis of a set of civil development projects that I envisioned, proposed, and supervised while assigned as a platoon leader in C Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry. C Troop conducted stability, counter-insurgency, and reconstruction operations in the Balad Ruz area of eastern Diayala Province, Iraq from November 2003 to February 2004. During that period, prior to any mature project management bureaucracy, I received access to civil development opportunities and funds generally limited to Civil Affairs teams and Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). As the originator of these projects and many of their founding ideas, my experience has both enabled and hindered full assessment of the processes and their outcomes. My participation in the deliberations and decisions enables the detailed description included here, but also challenges my capacity for unbiased evaluation of the procedural errors and resulting shortfalls. This is an unresolved tension, created by my dual roles as actor and assessor, that is evident throughout this project. The reader will notice numerous referrals to me as the arbitrator and final decider for the design and development of these projects, especially Ettihad. These personal allusions are not intended to advance a personally favorable view of the development process, but to provide an honest recounting of the process. This deference to my own "vision" and "education", as subsequent research and reflection strongly suggests, correlates with a number of the challenges I experienced. This project is intended to provide an in-depth account of civil reconstruction in a foreign culture in order to explore the challenges, discuss the lessons learned, and propose recommendations to improve similar reconstruction endeavors undertaken by American civilian and military entities in the future.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Observation of Localized Multi-Spatial-Mode Quadrature Squeezing

Quantum states of light can improve imaging whenever the image quality and resolution are limited by the quantum noise of the illumination. In the case of a bright illumination, quantum enhancement is obtained for a light field composed of many squeezed transverse modes. A possible realization of such a multi-spatial-mode squeezed state is a field which contains a transverse plane in which the local electric field displays reduced quantum fluctuations at all locations, on any one quadrature. Using a traveling-wave amplifier, we have generated a multi-spatial-mode squeezed state and showed that it exhibits localized quadrature squeezing at any point of its transverse profile, in regions much smaller than its size. We observe 75 independently squeezed regions. The amplification relies on nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a hot vapor and produces a bichromatic squeezed state. The result confirms the potential of this technique for producing illumination suitable for practical quantum imaging

Business Planning for New Ventures

Table of contents: Assessing Entrepreneurial Aptitude -- Identifying Sources of Capital -- Selecting a Legal Structure -- Preparing the Business Plan -- Presenting the Plan to Capital Providers -- Glossary